AMC Recancels ‘The Killing’

AMC Recancels 'The Killing'

Ah, the strange life of “The Killing.” Veena Sud’s crime drama, based on a Danish procedural, premiered in 2011 and spent two divisive seasons on the case of Rosie Larsen, a murdered Seattle teenager. The series, which starred Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman as detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder, didn’t attract high enough ratings for AMC to want to hold on to it, and the network canceled the series in July of last year, only to announce in January of 2013 that, never mind, it was coming back for a revamped third round thanks to negotiations with Fox Television Studios and some help from Netflix.

This most recent season upped the stakes of the central crime to serial killing and, as promised, made sure the case was solved by the 12-episode run. But today, as reported by Deadline, “The Killing” has be canceled again. “We have made the difficult decision not to move forward with a fourth season of ‘The Killing.’ We want to thank our great partners at Fox Television Studios, creator Veena Sud, an extraordinary cast and the dedicated fans who watched,” the network said in a statement.

While the third season was generally looked at as an improvement over the second, and the series added some great talent in Peter Sarsgaard and Amy Seimetz, ratings weren’t significantly up. The addition of a third season also allowed AMC to patch over some thin spots on its original programming schedule, but the cable network has two new series set for 2014, “Halt & Catch Fire” and “Turn,” and so less incentive to hold onto a property that doesn’t seem likely to attract a larger audience. Enos and Kinnaman, at least, aren’t short of roles. Enos was in summer blockbuster “World War Z” and in Atom Egoyan’s latest “Devil’s Knot,” which recently premiered at Toronto, while Kinnaman’s the star of the new “RoboCop” remake.

Comments

I'm so sad. The characters were brilliant. They really drew me in. I guess I'll just research the series from season 1. His prison break had so many seasons with unbelievable stories and horrible acting and a show like the killing gets cancelled just baffles me.

Very disappointed to hear 'The Killing' has been cancelled.
I loved it, was riveted. Loved the fact that many of the actors were
Vancouver based also. I watched the entire first season on Netflix one night,
simply couldn't stop, then waited eagerly for the second season. Cancelling is a mistake.
With so much third rate stuff on TV these days, and Reality TV networks really need to
offer First rate programming like this.

I was hooked on The Killing, because of the potential for more indepth stories or parts. Crime pays in this society now, meaning with the happening of such horrible serial killing in America and prominent murders everywhere there is an appetite for this with many tv watchers These shows are really challenging to me as a journalist/writer + 40 years! I am sorry they were cancelled, but we all know it is the money that counts, I really like AMC and hope more crime series will follow this season.